The 2017 Legislative Session convened on January 9. During the scheduled 105-day session, the House and Senate must address a variety of issues including a mandate to increase funding for basic education.

The Mockingbird Society will be working around the clock to ensure that services for children, youth, and families impacted by foster care and youth homelessness will be prioritized.

Click here for a list of 2017 lead and supporting priorities. Our lead priorities were developed in partnership with the youth and alumni of foster care who participate in our Mockingbird Youth Network program, as well as youth leaders from our Youth Advocates Ending Homelessness program.

In addition, The Mockingbird Society helps lead the Washington Coalition for Homeless Youth Advocacy, or WACHYA. WACHYA priorities can be accessed by clicking here.

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Mockingbird Society

The Mockingbird Society is an advocacy organization that works with young people and families to improve foster care and end youth homelessness.

Our youth programs train young people who have been homeless or in foster care to be their own best advocates. By doing so, they change policies and perceptions that stand in the way of every child having a safe, stable home, and a healthy family.

Our family programs advocate for innovation in foster care delivery. Together, our solutions focus on improving the social service systems that ultimately serve thousands of children, youth and families each year in Washington and beyond.

Our name is as unique as we are. The great American masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird provides our inspiration, our moral muscle.

Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Friends and Allies,

It is time. It’s time we stop “tinkering around the edges” of child welfare reform. Washington state is at a pivotal moment in our history, teetering on the edge of transforming how we care for our state’s youngest residents and their families. Our state has a strong and diverse movement of policy makers, community leaders, philanthropists, and advocates working together to address the most pressing issues facing our most vulnerable populations. The opportunity before us is twofold...